STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 89 



The Pomological Society is creating quite an interest in fruit raising in 

 this county, as well as in the State at large, and if we can keep up this 

 it Avill do a vast amount of good. 



The price of apples at the time of this writing is two dollars and twenty 

 cents per bushel in Lewiston market. 



Respectfully yours, 



D. J. BRIGGS. 



Report from Waldo County. 



The season of 1877 was one of almost total failure of apples, and of only 

 moderate production of other fruits. In the markets, to-day, oranges are 

 as cheap as apples. This is something so unusual that it is worthy of 

 note. Trees did not put forth as much bloom as usual, and have made 

 only a medium growth, owing to the severe drouth. They have, how- 

 ever, a healthy, robust look, that assures us they have vigor enougli for 

 a large crop in the near future. 



The caterpillars were not very numerous or troublesome. Tlieir depre- 

 dations were easily guarded against, and average vigilance would keep 

 the orchards free from them. Borers and the codling moth are on the 

 increase. In some sections the borers are so troublesome that large num- 

 bers of pear trees are being set in the place of apple trees. Bark lice do 

 a great deal of damage, and many do not realize it, or realizing it do not 

 know how, or take pains, to rid the trees of these parasites. 



The hard times and a better knowledge of fruit trees, works against the 

 tree agent's sales to a considerable degree. A few past years it has been 

 crabs largely; now it is the '"iron clad Russian." The wild goose plum 

 had its day, but not its generation. It led its purchasers a mythical wild 

 goose chase after plums, but in nine cases out often, with all petting and 

 care, clied of croup or catarrh before the first plum appeared. Cherries, 

 warranted black-knot proof; pears, that would grow in spite of all ill- 

 usage ; grapes, with promise of larger berry, greater clusters, and superior 

 earliness, have been sold and planted out, and had the stock been good, 

 and true to the bill, and had the planter given it proper care, Waldo, 

 to-day, would be shaded by orchards, dotted with vineyards, and varie- 

 gated with fruit gardens. Ship-building would be stimulated and fostered 

 by the demand of bottoms to carry the product of our fruit-bearing 

 woods, and the surplus of our teeming fields. But this was not so to be, 

 or at least is not so now. 



The great want of Waldo County, to-day, in the Pomological line, is 

 not more trees, but better orchardists ; not better varieties, but better 

 care ; not more tree agents, but more manure. There is not one orchard 

 in our knowledge over-fed. There is but few properly fed ; and there 

 are hundreds simply starving to death. One tree properly fed is worth a 

 dozen starving. Land rich enough for corn may do to start an orchard 

 upon, but will not do to keep it upon unless its fertility is kept up and 

 gradually increased. Trees must grow. They must bear fruit. They 



